The Black Dahlia

josh Harnett is a bad actor and absolutely wrong for the part

Rewatched this to see if it really was good. I saw it when it came out, liked it, and have been defending it ever since but for the last few years haven't remembered a thing about it other than a shot of ScarJo on the steps. Super babe.

Happy to report that it IS great. I'm also happy to watch it after burning through a few of De Palma's best over the past few weeks. This definitely has the classic De Palma style that went way over my head back in the day. I also know now that the off screen director's voice in the movie is De Palma because I recognize him from the bonus features on the Blow Out bonus features.

Now I'm going to watch Hollywoodland, another film from the same era (film setting and release date...ish). Both are on HBOGO if anyone is interested. Hey, Ben Affleck as Superman! Hahah that's going to be fun.

From director Brian De Palma comes the noir thriller The Black Dahlia. Based on a novel, the story follows a pair of police detectives that are assigned to one of the notorious Black Dahlia murders of the 1940s, but the investigation uncovers their own dark secrets and starts to tear them apart. The cast is quite impressive, and includes Josh Hartnett, Aaron Eckhart, Scarlett Johansson, and Mia Kirshner. But the story is convoluted and overly complicated, full of needless twists and reveals. Additionally, the noir tone doesn’t really work, as De Palma puts style before substance. The Black Dahlia is an overly stylized and disjointed film that lacks focus.